Home Automation Made Easy with GE Link

I don’t about how your kids go to sleep at night, but our youngest child Zeke, who is 3 — has gone from being the perfect sleeper to being OCD about his sleeping conditions. Tucking in has become a huge series of tantrums. He wants to play, not sleep. Sleep is for… well he doesn’t get that he needs it! We have started using the GE Link smart led bulbs and Wink Hub as a way to help ease him into a new night time routine – best part, it’s all automated!

With the Wink Smart Hub and GE Smart Light Bulb, you can schedule to turn on and off your light – and get this you can even DIM IT – all from your smart phone! Here’s a demo of my son using the Wink app to turn on, dim and off the lamp.

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Home Automation

Did anyone else ever watch the Jetson’s growing up and so wishing that your house had all the cool gadgets and home automation devices that “the future” had? I loved how George was awoken by a machine and thrown into an auto-mated shower, than automatically dressed. Coffee was delivered at the touch of a button, and well then there was Rosie the robot maid who did everything.

While we may not have the home automation down YET like the Jetsons, we are on our way and one of the most recent devices that I was super excited to try out the new Wink Hub and GE Link LED Bulbs.

My 2 toddlers and I headed to Home Depot to pick up these products and an assortment of other household goodies. Who doesn’t LOVE with toddlers? I am so thankful Home Depot had the car carts. I can haul both of the boys at once, and the 2 driver steering wheels keep the boys quiet for about 2.5 minutes.

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We found the Wink Hub and GE Lightbulbs on the end cap near the lighting department. There is a HUGE selection of add-ons for the Wink Hub. I found out, we already have 2 other devices that can connect to the Wink Hub!

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The boys weren’t excited as I was, but I found a coupon for $20 off when you purchase 2 GE light bulbs and the Wink Hub at the same time. Score! The light bulbs were $14.97 each and the Wink Hub was $49.95, I really thought they would be more expensive than that!

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At this point, the boys started melting down. Yes, we are now 5 minutes into our shopping trip. Izaiah is pulling his shirt off, because clothes – who needs them in public? And Zeke, his spidey senses were probably going off that we were doing something about his bedtime behavior. None the less, we somehow made it out of these with all of our stuff.

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Wink Hub and GE Link Setup

I got the goods home and while typically I wait for the husband to help put together my tech stuff, I decided to give this a go on my own. Because, hello home automation = AWESOME.

Here are the devices, right after I opened the packages:

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The GE Link LED Bulb is really cool looking. It’s quite a bit heavier than a standard lightbulb!

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To my surprise, the complete setup of installing the free Wink app, setting up and connecting the Wink Hub and GE Smart Lightbulb took a total of 10 minutes. Easy… peasy and no husband needed!

Lighting and Bedtime Routine

Here is how we are using the Wink App and GE Link LED Bulbs to help create a new bedtime routine:

We now put Zeke down around 9 pm. We will give him a book to read or car to play with. (Thankfully Zeke is still in a crib.)

I have the GE light bulb scheduled as such:

9:00 pm – Light turns ON – at full brightness

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9:30 pm – Light DIMS to half brightness

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10:00 pm – Light turns ALMOST off

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We are able to ease him into quiet time. This allows him to not be sentenced to go straight to sleep and gives him time to adjust. Here is our schedule for this Wifi light bulbs. It was super easy to setup in the Wink app (which is free, by the way!)

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So Far – So Good!

So far, so good. We are loving the ability to dim his light – or turn it on. We have a video baby monitor that works pretty well in the dark, but are now able to turn his lamp UP and see Zeke better in the video monitor when he cries!

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